Pin trading has become an unofficial sport at NAIG. Just ask these collectors | CBC News

Trading and collecting decorative pins has become an unofficial sport at the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax this week.

Just ask Braeden Fowler, an athlete who is representing British Columbia at the games.

He said the Team B.C. pins have been hot commodities this week because they’re part of a set of three.

“For all these other provinces and states, they want to get Team B.C. pins, and I think [they want to] make these connections with people … just to make a really tight-knit community across Turtle Island and Canada,” Fowler said on Monday.

Royce Nebin, with Team Nova Scotia, agrees.

“This gives not just the youth, but the chaperones and anybody else who’s participating in NAIG, an opportunity to reach out to somebody else to trade a pin to make that connection, to make that friendship,” Nebin said.

Al Munroe isn’t a competitor at the Games, but he’s an avid pin collector.

The 76-year-old from Calgary came to Halifax for a coin convention, but he and his wife decided to extend their trip by four days “to do some pin-trading at the Games.”

“I love trading. I love seeing the faces on the kids and the attitudes and the enthusiasm,” Munroe told CBC Radio’s Yukon Morning.

“We’ve had a ball.”

50 years of trading

Munroe, who has been pin collecting for about 50 years, said he earned about 50 pins after trading for several hours at the cultural village on the Halifax Common earlier this week.

Munroe offered some advice for rookie traders who might be at the games.

“Make sure you like what you want. Value is relative because if you’ve got four pins, what are you going to do with them? You have one there that someone else is willing to trade, why not?” he said.

“If it gives you pleasure to give it, go for it. If it doesn’t, keep the pin you have and walk off and find somebody else.”

Munroe’s wife, Marion, said she enjoys her husband’s hobby.

“You’re here to meet people and have some fun,” she said.